Cain's Revenge
by ShivaVixen
Summary: [AU] As Cain was shoved through time in his fight against Lina, he jumped to a time where just a simple push would have terrible effects on the lives of the 00 Cyborgs. After all, they'd been pretty desperate to escape, even if it meant leaving some innocent stranger to Black Ghost because they couldn't wake him in time. [A/N: Cain vs Kane, I'm using the spelling I 1st found.]
1. Revenge

**This has absolutely nothing to do with my Phantom/Pandora's Box series. This is just a tiny 'what could be' that I got after watching the episodes of the 2001 series with Dr. Gamo. **

* * *

**Revenge**

Cain only had an instant to act, as he was shoved through time. He flung himself to one moment, one instant, where things could have gone very differently.

009 lay on the table, wires connecting him to computers which were programming his robotic parts- thousands of lines of code for just a second of acceleration power.

Soon, he knew, 001 would call to 009, waking him and testing him as 001 and the others were completing the escape plan they had already started. Dr. Gilmore was already in place, and if the 00 cyborgs were to have any hope of escaping, everything would have to go without a single hitch.

He had seen it, in their memories, they would have left 009 if he had been unable to be woken, oh, some of them wouldn't have wanted to do it, would have regretted leaving him to Black Ghost while they escaped, but they would have left rather than have the doors of opportunity close.

Cain smiled down at the unconscious 009.

It was only one moment, barely an instant in reality, but Cain reached out with his powers-

_/I can't wake him./_ _001 alerts those with him and Dr. Gilmore._

"_We'll have to leave without him, they're coming to take us back now."_

"_He's right, we won't get another chance."_

"_What does Dr. Gilmore think?"_

_/Some sort of energy spike from the computer, they have to fix all his codes, and he won't be able to wake until those codes are correct, to avoid straining his mind and body./ 001 sucks hard on his pacifier. /We'll have to escape now and come back for him later./_

"_We know nothing about this guy, why should we bother?"_

"_They're here!"_

-and everything was changed.

_Looks like I have the last laugh, 00 Cyborgs!_ Cain laughed, even as he felt his existence begin to fade. It had taken everything he had left, and he wouldn't be able to jump back far enough in time to preserve his existence, but he had had his revenge.

* * *

**From what I understood of the first episode, 001 through 008 had escaped while they were working on 009, regrouping at a certain spot. When they woke up 009, 001 guided him to them, just as the group responsible for bringing them back in arrived. With that in mind, while none of them would have been happy about it, they wouldn't have gone all out to try and rescue some stranger they didn't know a thing about, in favor of escaping while they could.**

**Of course, none of them would ever acknowledge that the thought had crossed their minds, putting it away into the darkest part and pretending they never thought it.**


	2. Awakening

**Consequences, from a simple change, are rather fun to play with, don't you think?**

**Warning: descriptions of torture, but not really violent.**

* * *

**Awakening**

Shimamura Joe opened his eyes. There had been no slow waking process, one moment he'd been unconscious, the next, wide awake. It only took him a second to analyze the room he was in, a rather plain metal room with a window high in the ceiling and a metal table which he was laying on, or rather, strapped down on. He was wearing some odd uniform, too, a blue one with a red buttons and a similar shade of red scarf.

"Ah, you're awake." A short man with dark glasses and a lab coat stood nearby. "I am Dr. Ross, you are 009, a Prototype Cyborg soldier."

"My name is," Joe started, unable, or rather, unwilling, to accept what the crazy man in the lab coat said.

"No longer valid." Dr. Ross cut him off, hands behind his back. "You jumped off a cliff, 009, your human life, as well as your human name, ended, the authorities have declared you dead."

"I …" Joe started, but a lump was forming in his throat.

"We of the Black Ghost organization have given you a new life, 009. With it, comes a new designation, free of any stigma from your previous human life." Dr. Ross took a step forward, straightening to reach his full (though unimpressive) height. "I will ask what your designation is, you will answer me correctly." There was a threat behind those words, Joe realized, but he still rebelled at the thought of just giving up his name, his identity. "What is your designation?"

"Shimamura Joe." Came the quiet, but defiant answer. It was followed by blinding pain, his nerves, his computer systems, sparking with electricity that came from the straps and something connected to his neck. The pain ended, and the echoes of a scream finally registered.

"What is your designation?" The doctor asked again, and Joe wondered if that was concern in his voice.

"Shi-Shimamura Joe." He knew the pain was coming this time, but that knowledge didn't stop his screams.

The Doctor asked the question a few more times, and Joe was certain that each time the pain was even more horrible than the time before. He wasn't sure why he was fighting for this, either, it seemed like such a stupid idea now.

"009, why do you fight this? What did Shimamura Joe have that was so important? Friends, Family, What is it that's so important?"

Friends? No, he'd only ever had four, and three had just left him for new families years ago while the fourth he hadn't heard from in months. No one else had wanted to befriend a half-japanese kid that got into fights. Family? The priest had been his only family, once the others had gone. He was dead now, and Joe had been arrested for his murder. No one would take him now, not after the way he had been accused by the neighbors as they'd pushed him into a police car. "Nn- Nothing. There is nothing." Just his name, but according to the doctor, he didn't even have that; legally, he was dead, and no one would mourn him.

"Then why hold onto a ghost?" Did it really even matter what he was called anymore? The combination of pain and despair made him close his eyes.

It didn't. No one had cared for Shimamura Joe, he knew that now.

"What is your designation?" The Doctor asked again.

"I am Cyborg Soldier 009." 009 answered, voice dull.

"Good. We will begin testing tomorrow. For now, you shall be taken to your room." The straps were removed, the wires disconnected, and 009 almost stumbled when he first tried standing on his own two feet. "The heaviness will fade once your organic systems learn to cope with your new ones." Dr. Ross lead the way, and it took everything 009 had to follow him.

His room turned out to cell, for lack of a better word for the metal vault like door that locked from the outside, inside was a cot just wide enough to fit him, and a small chest of drawers next to a sink with a mirror and a sliding door that lead into a small room with a toilet and a small indent for a shower.

009 remained silent as the door closed and locked, sinking onto the bed as he stared at his reflection. "I am Cyborg Soldier 009." He repeated, despite no one asking him. He continued to repeat it until he finally fell asleep.

* * *

**Sorry, Joe, but it wouldn't be Cain's revenge if you weren't tortured a bit. It will get better from here, though … maybe.**

**Anyone recognize Dr. Ross?**


	3. Conditioning

**Slow Updates.**

**Conditioning**

009 isn't really supposed to think much about his past, or his orders, or the fact that it seems all these tests are designed to push him until he breaks.

But there are certain parallels he can draw between his previous life and this one, whenever they put him back in that little cell to wait for the next test.

It's just barely enough, but he latches onto Dr. Ross as a second Father Figure, because despite the Doctor's habit of expounding on how excellent the robotics in his body were, the Doctor was the one that was allowed to speak with him the most, usually checking on how well his body was holding up.

There's something wrong, furtive, about the way people try to talk about the previous cyborg prototypes when they think 009 can't hear, and it reminds him too much of how people used to talk about his mother, having a child by a _gaijin_ and then not even marrying him, and then leaving the mongrel to leech off the priest. (The nicer ones would point out that she died, her body never recovering from childbirth, but there was still the disapproval.)

They've escaped, possibly damaged, but they're gone to somewhere they don't have to obey orders, or lose bits of their humanity inorder to survive.

Joe had learned early on that there were some battles that just couldn't be fought with fists, or even reasoned with. It hadn't stopped him from fighting those that would crush him into what they wanted him to be- a half Japanese mongrel that was as violent and rude as his gaijin father.

009 was far more careful in picking battles, he had to be, because now he was a cyborg soldier and this new life meant that he had to follow orders or risk even more of his humanity forcibly stripped away. So, He buried the memories of his life before when he was outside the cell.

It was the only way to survive their conditioning.

Eventually, though, something would give.


	4. Running

**Running**

004 hit the ground and rolled, they were just barely surviving the assassins sent out after them.

It hadn't escaped anyone's notice that the assassins had started at 0011, there was a possibility that 009 had been severely damaged or even killed in their escape, something that had left 003 slightly distressed. (And a small bit of curiosity of what happened to 0010, surely they would have sent them out first?)

0011 had been relatively easy to take down, 004 had managed to do it himself after the others had fallen to the cyborg's poison, but then came this 0012- what was next, a giant?

"004, are you alright?" 003 ran over, 007 just behind her.

"Fine, 003, do you see where her center is?" 004 ignored the flash of hurt, they didn't have time.

"This way," 003 said after a moment, and by some miracle, they actually made it.

"You're to be commended for making it this far, but by now your Professor is in Tokyo with 009." 0012 said, before laughing.

Then the noise started. 004 was driven to his knees before it stopped. Glancing up to check the cause, he saw a broken mirror and 003 looking dazed while still holding her weapon, before fainting away. 004 scooped her up, noticing as he did that 007 had approached 0012.

"007, we've got to go." 004 saw the body of the woman in the photos, before 0012's machinery caught fire.

003 finally woke up as the house vanished under the ground, burying itself.

"So, she really was there, after all." 003 murmured. "I thought so."

"And the professor is with 009 in Tokyo." 004 reminded them. "Seems 009 survived after all."

"Maybe we can talk to him?" 007 offered as they headed back to the car.

004's mouth fell into a grim line. "Unlikely, we don't know anything about 009, save that he was the combination of our designs."

"001 thought he could be reasoned with." 003 noted, she finally got to her feet.

"After this long in Black Ghost clutches? I have my doubts." 004 opened the door.

003 actually slammed it shut, narrowly missing his hand. "He was there because we left him, 004, we have a duty to try and get through to him." She glared at him, and 004 saw over her shoulder that 007 was in an army uniform waving a white flag.

"Alright, we'll try, but you need to be careful, 003." 004 decided against what he was originally going to say in favor of pointing at the door. "I don't want to have to pay for fixing the car if you slam my hand in it."

003 flushed, and 004 smiled as 007 finally joined in the conversation. "Yes, consideration for others 003, we don't want to give Professor Kozumi a damaged car when we get him back, it's bad enough 0011 damaged his house."

004 let 007 distract 003 on the drive back. He was worried, 009 had not been sent after them until now, so why the sudden change? As far as he was concerned, it could only be because Black Ghost was sure he wouldn't turn on them.


	5. Mistake

**Mistake**

There were two 0010 models. 009 watched them be built, watched Dr. Ross fuss over the change in their designs, unable to give his input because he was exclusively tied to the 009 project.

He was put into an arena to test them, much to Dr. Ross's displeasure.

What followed was an accident. There wasn't supposed to be any death, it was supposed to be like a game of tag, every time one of them was hit, they backed off so the data could be analysed. But 009 had more experience running and keeping an eye on surroundings than the two children he was facing, and so he led them somewhere he could trap them, unaware that they were so focused on trying to catch him between them that they collided.

"The different polarities and improper shielding is what did it." Dr. Ross noted. "It wasn't your fault 009."

009 disagreed, but remained silent.

Then came Tokyo, he was supposed to run a distraction for the unveiling of 0013, get the cyborgs to follow him, and it started out easy enough.

"I really thought it would be quieter in the morning." The Cyborg Prototype 008 noted, and 009 couldn't help but snort.

"You realize Tokyo operates 24 hours, right?"

"Yeah, but-" 008 froze, and 005 shielded 003. "Who are you?"

"009." His uniform is blue and red, but he remembers seeing a red uniform like theirs in Dr. Ross's lab. He keeps his face impassive, even as he hears the other 00 cyborgs call over their radios- it's odd, hearing concern, but he focuses past that. "You won't find the professor like this, you'd do better focusing on places that are less crowded."

"Why should we believe you?"

[Guys, capture him!] 002's voice echoes in his head, and that's the only warning he gets before 002 attempts to accelerate and grab him. He dodges, blocks 005's swing with an iron girder (which stings) and dodges 008. They've pushed him from 003, but as a result of their attacks her positon is actually less safe and 009 accelerates, appearing next to her.

"003!" They shout, panicked and worried, 009 ignores them and picks her up, jumping as the spot they were on creaks and tears away. 003 looks at him in awe and something like guilt.

He deposits her on safer ground, and then jumps to a safer position. He should taunt them, but he's still reeling from the look 003 gave him, and instead accelerates as fast as he can.

Dr. Ross told him about what Black Ghost was, what he was built for, and for all he buries it, he still remembers the Priest's teachings, so he knows he's technically the villain in all this, but the way 003 looked at him, as if he was something good- it hurts.

He changes into civilian attire, the closest to blending in he can get, and while hiding in the remotest prefecture of Tokyo promptly runs into Scarnose Yasu, who all but yells his name after 009 says his in surprise.

It takes him by surprise, and he has to unbury some of his past, because there's a stranger with them and he can't afford to make Yasu suspicious.

He honestly likes the little rabbit the stranger made for him, and holds it close it's been so long someone has given him something that isn't meant to kill.

After the teen is picked up by an older man, and 009 tries to protect him, Yasu does the one thing 009 thought impossible: he breaks the boundary between 009 and Joe Shimamura. It's not confirmed, of course, but 009 heard the whirr of machinery in the older man, there is only one death merchant remotely capable of cyborg enhancements, and there is no way the priest worked for Black Ghost willingly, no matter what Yasu said.

He's still shaken that night, even as he runs interference, or tries to- he needs to question that old man, needs to know if this was always going to be an inevitability.

When the night ends, and the boundary between 009 and Joe Shimamura is so fractured it's painful to stand before Black Ghost and be lauded for destroying the 'traitor' 0013. Eventually, he just goes numb, inwardly drowning with no one to save him.


	6. Anti-Climax

**Anti-Climax**

Kozumi didn't have a lot slip by him, Gilmore's treatment of his cyborg children, his worry over the fate of 009 … but he was confused by this. He thought he was being kidnapped, he was even held inside a giant, but now … he was laying on the ground, ears ringing slightly from an explosion, and a little girl was busy trying to explain why Mister Nine had fought the other Black Ghost lackeys.

She went silent as 009 jumped up to the cliff, carrying the body of 0013 and looking devastated.

"It's always hard to lose a friend, 009." The young man jerked, and Kozumi couldn't help but feel for this scared boy.

"He helped you beat the badun that killed your daddy though!" The little girl offered, and Kozumi almost dropped the child. "It's like the shows Daddy watches when he thinks Momma won't be home for a while."

"…" Kozumi watched 009's bang fall into his eyes, "You knew Black Ghost was a villain, 009."

"Villains and heroes didn't matter then … this … was I always going to end up like this?" 009 questioned, and looked at Kozumi. "The Priest gave children to Black Ghost without knowing, was I always going to become this?" 009 looked at his hand. "I don't even know what to do, I only have Black Ghost, even f I ran, where would I go?"

"Well, Dr. Gilmore has room for another."

"Dr. Gilmore?" 009 looked away. "He's the one that went with the rebel Cyborgs."

"He didn't want to leave you behind, but they couldn't get to you." Kozumi paused. "Or you could stay with me, I wouldn't mind the company."

"…" 009 almost answered, but then his head snapped to look at something in the distance. "Maybe someday, I'll be able to take that offer, Professor. But there's something I have to do first." He gently arranged 0013's body, before picking Kozumi and the girl up. "Don't worry, I'm just getting you down the stairs." Two easy jumps later, and 009 gave the girl a carved wooden elephant, depositing something else in Kozumi's pocket. "He'd want you to have this, your parents are that way." And then he ran off.

"Professor Kozumi!" 002 landed in front of him, "Are you alright?"

"Yes, let's get this little girl home before I tell you all about it."

It was much later, after a wonderful meal made by 006, that Kozumi was able to answer all there questions. It gave him some time to look up information on a priest that was murdered when 009 was taken, and then decide not to tell the group, and hide the small carved rabbit that 009 had hidden on him, it's not a tracker, and Kozumi realizes it's a test of trust.

"Your 009 isn't coping well, I'm afraid. He knows Black Ghost is dangerous, but he thinks he has nowhere else to go." Kozumi explains, and notices the guilt in the way they shift, trying to bury it. "That has nothing to do with you leaving him, Black Ghost seems to have been trying to get him to consider his life before they got him as not existing. Now the boy got proof from 0013 that this isn't the case, but he doesn't know what to do with himself. I tried to get him to come with me, but he ran off."

"Great, so he could turn on us anyway." 002 noted.

"Maybe," 004 was looking at Kozumi, but thankfully whatever went through his mind seemed to change. "I say we save him regardless."

"Save him? He had us chasing our tails out there!" 002 points out, and this makes 003 angry.

"He saved me when he didn't have to!"

As everyone fell to arguing, 004 got up and followed Kozumi to the hall. "You know more about him than you're saying."

"Not my story to tell." Kozumi sighed. "You might try and save him sooner, rather than later."

004 doesn't like the sound of that, doesn't like the possibility that 009 might- what? 004 diesn't even know the kid, but there's something conflicting in the actions of this unknown, and the way Kozumi tells it- 009 has nothing to escape Black Ghost for, unless they give him a reason, give him back the place they cruelly took away in their rush to escape from Black Ghost.

"When you do, give him this." Kozumi hands him a crudely wrapped package that surprises 004. "I'm pretty sure he'll be grateful."

004 still has his doubts, but he knows how badly sometimes all one needs is a chance, especially when desperate.

**Wow, I'm on a roll.**


End file.
